Tax on Wages
 

Can anyone tell me what percentage of your wages if taxed?? Is it the same kinda thing as britain? anything else get taken off??

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Taxation is levied both Federally and Provincially so it depends where you live. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/allrates/menu-e.html has the details. Taxes in Canada are high! Well except for Alberta.

You will also pay EI (Employment Insurance), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) which is like NI back home plus likely to have deductions from your employer for health/dental/group life/accident and injury insurance. These contributions dont have tax deducted on them.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Try here

http://www.ey.com/GLOBAL/content.nsf...5_Personal_Tax

Re: Tax on Wages
 

I find that one rather misleading myself, as its taking taxable income, which might not be the same as a salary, and it ignores all EI and CPP for reasons that escape me.

This one is better,
http://www.taxtips.ca/calculators.htm#taxcalculator
although it assumes a single person ,taking no other deductions to calculate taxable income, which might not be the case for all.

THe OP was asking what else is deducted.

Federal and Provincial tax
EI (employment insurance)
CPP (Canada pension plan)

EI and CPP are basically like NI, but here they are capped at a sensible relatively low level, so you (hopefully) stop paying them at some point in the year.

Tax in canada is certainly no worse than the UK for middle income earners, and by my calculations considerably less. I paid ~25% overall last year after refunds, but thats on a married allowance. Single I would have paid more, but if we were both working we would have been better off to file separate returns.

I wont go into numbers here, its all been covered before more than once.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

I like the sound of that, and after checking the links that have been posted it looks a whole lot nicer than the UK.

Philip

Re: Tax on Wages
 

My tax hit last year worked out at 31% of gross income. However, I'm self-employed so my accountant got my gross down by about 5K. I also don't pay UI (another grand); nor do I have to pay into the Quebec drug plan (another grand).

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Do you know if the same tax breaks are applied to common law partners in Canada as to married couples IainK?

Re: Tax on Wages
 

What breaks?

When I fill out my tax returns, details of my common-law partner's income go on the front page and vice-versa. Any breaks we might get are based on our combined income. The only effect of this I can see is that she can't claim child allowance for her son because our combined income is way too high.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

I don't know! 's why I asked.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

There is no real answer to this question.

And I'll tell you why.

As has been pointed out, it all depends on where one lives. Alberta, for instance, has relatively low income taxes and it doesn't impose a provincial sales tax. It can get away with this as it is sitting on a few barrels of oil. That oil will disappear one fine day but for the time being there is a lot of it underground.

On the other hand, Quebec is reputed to have some of the highest taxes in the Western world. How accurate this is I do not know, but taxes here are certainly steep.

But, and this is a big but, one must also conslder quality of life and the cost of housing (or rental accomodation) and food. Quebec for instance is relatively inexpensive as compared to other major cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. .

In 1998 I lived in Ottawa for a year. I found that the savings there in income taxes were wiped out completely given the increased cost of accomodation and even food that we had to put up with.

People from the UK must get used to the idea that Canada is a very loose federation. It consists of seperate provinces and some of these provinces have considerable clout.

So to ask a question on Canadian Income Tax becomes virtually impossible to answer intelligently.

Bottom line: It all depends exactly where in Canada one intends to settle.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Its no really a break, its only an advantage over filing singly if your partner is not earning anything, and IMO it would be fairer to give married couples 2x single allowance, rather than the reality which is less than that.

Common law or married, its the same deal. Not sure about same sex.

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Im not sure I understand the way married people get breaks ? what % is the break ? Is there a limit on the amount of money a couple makes at which tax breaks are stopped ?

Re: Tax on Wages
 

Its not really a break, its just a difference in the initial income deduction before you start to pay tax.

A single person can earn the first ~$7k without getting taxed

A married couple can claim ~$12k

So as my wife has no income, I basically save a few thousand in tax compared to a single person on my income.

BUT...if my wife worked and had a significant income, then we would be worse off than if we could both claim $7k each tax free.....or something.

I dont see any logic why the married allowance is not 2 x the single allowance.

BTW, $7 & 12k are numbers "for indication only"...if you want the exact number, google for them:)